Game Design Challenge Asks for Creative Input

What do Tetris, Sim City, Jenga, and World of Goo have in common? They are all somehow, if loosely, about architecture. GameCareerGuide, Gamasutra’s sister site for career and education information related to game development, has presented its readers with a creative exercise to invent a new game that is also somehow about architecture. Gamasutra readers have been invited to try to solve the challenge as well. The purpose of the challenges, a weekly series, is for aspiring game developers to experiment with problems of game design, art, marketing, and other professional issues, in a risk-free and creative way. They also aim to get gamers who have an interest in the profession to see video games through a new lens. For the complete details of the current “Architectural Pursuit” challenge, including instructions for entering, see the original post on GameCareerGuide, as well as the community forum, where aspiring and lesser experienced game developers have already begun to tinker with the problem at hand. Submissions (text-based, though images are also permitted) may be sent via email to [email protected] with the subject line “Design Challenge: Architectural Pursuits." Please type your answer directly in the email body. Submissions should be no more than 500 words and may contain up to three images. Be sure to include your name and affiliation or job title. Entries must be submitted by midnight (PST) Wednesday, March 5, 2009. Restaurant Game Challenge Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions from the last Game Design Challenge, which was about creating (and figuring out the difficulty system for) a game about starting a restaurant. The winners were Christopher Plummer, a lead game analyst, David McClure from London, Garrett Guillotte of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The three honorable mentions were Liam, a designer and music specialist at Zoe Mode, John Gordon, an aspiring game designer, and Kayleigh Oliver, a software technician. For more about this and other Game Design Challenges, or for more introductory information or career advice about video game development, visit GameCareerGuide.